The Springing of the Blade. William Everson.

(Reno, Nevada: The Black Rock Press, 1968.)

23.4cm x 32.8cm x 2.1cm

Bound in the French technique in sky-blue goat. Design elements include hand-sewn silk endbands, hand-colored top edge, leather doublures & flyleaves, and onlays, including thin bands emerging from hand-tooled dots of gold. Titling is hand-tooled in gold down the spine. Bound in 2007.

The poems in this title reflect the coming of Harvest. They depict Autumn, particularly as a time of settling in before the hibernation of spirit during winter. Interestingly, the title is most telling—as part of the regenerative cycle of all living things, autumnal quieting and winter rest are essential toward the new blade “springing”. My design reflects blades of grass, both resting and rising, with ghost-like blades and associated auras mingling about them. It is the cycle. The gesturative bands of onlays were brought onto the doublure (back-pared), as well as the specks of gold, to further indicate the cycle.